London [UK], July 8 : Ahead of India's third Test against England at Lord's, the team's batting coach Sitanshu Kotak spoke on changes in skipper Shubman Gill's mindset and technique, pointing that it is the more "mental" side of things he has worked on rather than technical.
With the series one-piece each after a historic 336-run win at Edgbaston, the team's first-ever at the venue, Team India heads to the prestigious Lord's fixture scheduled for Thursday with high confidence. Gill looks at the top of his game, with three centuries in the series so far, at the top of run-charts with a massive 585 runs, including a 387-ball marathon of 269 runs at Edgbaston, followed by a knock of 161 at almost run-a-ball tempo.
Speaking ahead of the game in the presser, Kotak said that it is not because of captaincy that Gill has changed, and it has more to do with mindset.
"In Australia, obviously, I saw him in our initial practice match, and I saw him in the series in India. It is because of that and his mindset now. So, there are definitely tactical changes. He has made a few technical changes, and he does it. So, it is a lot more about his mindset, I think. That he is in a mindset where he wants to give little time to the wicket. And as I said before, his skill is such that he can convert any loose ball into a boundary. So he is doing 100 runs in 150-140 balls," said the batting coach.
Heading into the series, Gill had not touched the 40-run mark outside Asia following his iconic knock of 91 at Brisbane in 2021, which won India the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Gill struggled to replicate the consistency of that series in later overseas games and was unable to convert his positive starts into big scores. Now, his batting average away from home has skyrocketed to 43.36, as compared to 27.53 before this series.
"I would say more mental, and definitely a little technical adjustment he has made. But I think it IS more mental, the determination I have seen, the way he batted, obviously everyone, you guys must have seen as well. So, in the first game, second inning (dismissed for just eight runs), he played a shot early, which was probably because he thought it was too early to play. He spoke about that, and in the next test, he did not play a single ball when he was not in for enough time. So it is a lot more mental," he added.
Speaking on the wicket, Kotak said that there is a "little bit of green" on it.
"But tomorrow, when they will make the final cut, the last cutting they do the day before the match, after that we can say. And generally, the scores of the first and second innings of the loads test are comparatively low. So we can expect that the bowlers can get a little more help," he added.